Refrain For Justice
by mangaluva
Summary: Two years after the defeat of the Reach, a mysterious man with amnesia and some surprising relations appears near the remains of Mount Justice. The Team takes him in, curious about what secrets could lie behind his strange appearance, but the Light is still moving in the Shadows and what they have yet to face goes beyond what they could have ever imagined.
1. Chapter 1

{ _Rhode Island_ }

{ _July 8, 22:31 EDT_ }

{ _2018-Team Year Eight}_

The Team had begun, as such things do, as a small group of friends trying to make a change. And make a change they had-they'd built a community, a _family_ , that had just continued to grow. Members had come and gone, either leaving the superhero life or joining the Justice League, but the five survivors of the first six members of the Team still stayed, teaching and guiding the next generation of superheroes. They were the five leaders of the Team, a group with no single, centralized leader but a group of adults who'd grown up doing what they did and wanted to make sure that other kids who wanted to be heroes got to grow up.

Tim Drake never went on a single Team mission without being a little amazed and honoured that he was a part of something like this. Years ago he'd just been a kid with a camera and a desperate longing to protect people the way Batman and Robin did, and now he _was_ Robin, not just fighting muggers, murderers and mobsters in Gotham but the real monsters that threatened the whole world. He was a kid with some cool weapons and special training in martial arts and criminology, and he was fighting alongside aliens, sorcerers and cyborgs. He was considered _on their level_.

It was a dream that he never wanted to wake up from.

Of course, the life was not without cost. On the flight back from the mission, Robin kept finding his gaze drawn to Superboy and Miss Martian, the latter sitting on the central pilot's seat and the former sitting immediately at her right hand. While Gar and the others were chatting excitedly about pulling off another successful Intergang bust, the two senior members of the Team were watching the scenery pass outside of the cloaked ship with an air of quiet solemnity.

He didn't need the telepathic link to guess what was on their minds. Dick had once confessed that any sign of a boom tube or any other sort of portal never failed to ignite a spark of hope in him-hope that maybe it would turn out, finally, to be a lead on the sixth missing Team Founder. Two years on, there'd been neither hide nor hair of Wally West, but at least one Founder always found an excuse to come along to any mission that involved portals or alien tech _just in case,_ even when it was a mission like busting a smuggling handover, something simple enough that even a brand-new Team member like Cyborg could handle it easily.

Nervous of being caught staring, he turned his attention back to the rest of the team's excited chatter. They'd already debriefed over video link as soon as they'd boarded the bioship and were en route to drop Robin off in Gotham. The rest all lived together on the nature reserve in Qurac that Gar had inherited from his mother and returned to live on with M'gann after the destruction of their home in Mount Justice. The isolated reserve had been perfect for Beast Boy, who unlike his adoptive sister couldn't change his colour-but the animals didn't mind, and the wide open spaces where he'd grown up felt much more like home to Gar than the confines of Mount Justice had. A zeta tube installation was all it took to keep the pair in close touch with their friends and family and allow them to continue going on missions with the Team, though Miss Martian had stayed off of the Team for nearly a year after the defeat of the Reach. She'd said it was to focus on looking after Gar, who'd lost his home twice now, but Robin privately suspected it was more to do with her breakup with Lagoon Boy and the return of her relationship with Superboy, who'd also moved out to the reserve after a while. The reserve had become quite a haven for those who, for various reasons, struggled to live inconspicuously among the general populace, and the six residents had become quite a close-knit subset of the Team. In truth, Robin felt a little awkward going on missions with them-he felt like a bit of an outsider, and it made him miss the closeness of Gotham's vigilantes. He, Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl and Spoiler were as close as M'gann, Conner, Gar, Victor, Kori and Raven had become, and as much as he knew it was crucial to be able to work well with all members of the Team and the League as comrades, he loved working with his family above all.

 _Should be back in plenty of time to get a few hours of patrol in with Batman,_ he thought, checking the time. He was about to send Stephanie a text to let her know that the mission had gone smoothly and he'd be back early when Miss Martian looked up sharply as the ship _beeped._

"What's wrong?" Superboy asked as Miss Martian projected a map and tracking signal on a screen in front of herself.

"She's picking up an odd signal," Miss Martian said, moving the display to the window at the front of the ship so all of them could see. "It's fading fast, but there was definitely a strange energy spike… at Mount Justice."

Superboy and Beast Boy adopted grim expressions to match the slight drop in Robin's gut at the mention of their destroyed former base. Starfire's natural cheer dimmed a little in response to her teammates' sudden serious, but Raven, sitting next to her, was already naturally grim and showed no particular response to the information.

Cyborg also frowned as he connected his systems up to the Bio-ship to have a look at the signal himself. "Don't have any energy signals like it in my databases," he said. "Should we check it out?"

"Let's take a look," Superboy said with a nod. "We're close by anyway." He exchanged a brief look with M'gann and Robin saw it flicker in their eyes: the brief spark of hope that none of them could ever let go of when it came to unknown portals or signals.

It took them less than ten minutes to reach the remains of Mount Justice. Two years after the mountain's destruction, trees and grass were starting to grow back over it, feeding off the fertile ash and making the mountain's broken shape look more natural. It was still an unpleasant sight to those who had once called it home and still found themselves tracing out a more familiar peak of stone than the low-slung remnants.

The area was still very much closed to the public, though, which made it odd to see, through the night vision filter, somebody walking a dog on the beach near the mountain.

"What's a dog walker doin' out there at a quarter to eleven at night?" Cyborg asked in confusion.

"Perhaps the dog is nocturnal?" Starfire suggested. "It is very kind of his human to stay up so late to walk with him!"

"Sorry, Star, but… dogs aren't nocturnal," Beast Boy said with absolute authority. "Do you think they're something to do with the weird signal? I mean, it _is_ weird that they're there…"

"I'll check it out," Miss Martian said, standing up. "Robin, do you have a flashlight?"

"Sure," Robin said, pulling one out of the holster on his belt and tossing it to her.

The martian shapeshifted into a human police officer, taking on the appearance of a middle-aged woman. "Cyborg, can you take over as pilot?"

"Sure," Cyborg said, giving her a thumbs-up with his mostly flesh hand while his fully robotic arm stayed plugged into the console. It lit up as the piloting spheres by Miss Martian's seat went dim.

"Be careful," Superboy said, gently taking her hand. She nodded, kissed him on the cheek, then went invisible and dropped out of the airship. The whole team felt the slight presence of her linking them up psychically, allowing them to see and hear what she saw and heard. She landed softly behind some rubble not far away from the man and the dog, scoping them out before going closer. The image grew sharper as she shifted the cones and rods in her eyes for night vision, allowing her to see the two figures more clearly.

The guy was young, maybe college-aged, white with longish black hair that hung over his eyes and brushed his broad shoulders. He was dressed pretty normally in jeans, a black t-shirt and a brown jacket. The dog at his side was a huge black Great Dane. It wasn't on a leash, but was walking calmly at the man's side until it paused, looking in Miss Martian's directions, ears pricking and nose twitching.

"What's the matter, boy?" the guy said warily, looking at where Miss Martian was, squinting through the darkness that would keep her covered even if she couldn't turn invisible. "Somebody there?"

Miss Martian ducked behind the rubble, went visible, then strode out, turning on the flashlight and pointing it at the man. He winced and threw a hand up over his eyes. "You!" she called, shifting her voice to sound more like a middle-aged woman. "This area is off-limits to the public! I'm going to have to ask you to leave!"

"Oh? Sorry, I didn't know," the stranger said, looking down at his dog and then returning to squinting at Miss Martian past his hand. Miss Martian pointed the flashlight down a little so it wasn't directly in his face. "This might sound like kind of a weird question, officer," the man said, lowering his hand, "but, uh… where _am_ I?"

"You're on private property, young man," Miss Martian said sternly. "How did you get in here? What's your name?"

"It's Trey. Trey Malone… I think," the young man said uncertainly, "and I don't know how I got here. I woke up here." He patted his jeans and jacket pockets, turning a couple of them inside out. "I'm sorry, I don't seem to have anything on me…"

"You woke up here? What's the last thing you remember?" Miss Martian asked.

" _Partied too hard tonight?_ " Beast Boy thought with a snigger.

" _Mount Justice has a few security systems still online and none've them were set off,_ " Cyborg said. " _I'd like to see the blackout drunk who could do_ that _."_

" _Why'd he say 'I think' after giving her his name?_ " Robin wondered.

Trey was looking from his dog, to the beach, to Miss Martian with a confused expression. "I don't," he said finally, absentmindedly scratching his dog's ears. "Remember, I mean. I woke up here, but before that… nothing. I mean, I know the names of things, I know you're a police officer, stuff like that, but I just… don't know where I am, or how I got here, or where I'm from or anything."

" _Just an amnesiac,_ " Raven thought boredly. " _Drop him off at a police station. Somebody's probably looking for him._ "

" _Hold on,_ " Superboy interrupted. " _We don't know what he has to do with that energy spike. Is he telling the truth, M'gann?_ "

" _I can't be sure without a deep probe,_ " Miss Martian said uneasily. " _He does feel… uncertain. And lonely._ "

"Can you help me, officer?" Trey asked.

Which was when the sea monster burst out of the ocean and attacked.

"Team, Go!" Superboy ordered, jumping out of the Bio-ship as soon as Cyborg opened up an exit hatch. Beast Boy, in hawk form, and Raven flew out after him. Cyborg detached from the ship, taking Starfire's hand as the deceptively strong young alien picked up him and Robin to fly them down to beach. The last thing they saw before Miss Martian dropped the visual aspect of the psychic link was her grabbing Trey and his dog and flying them out of the way as a giant tentacle slammed into the beach where they'd been standing.

Robin turned on the night vision in his lenses and immediately wished he hadn't. The thing was _huge,_ like a giant squid crossbred with Godzilla, a dozen tentacles flailing at the beach. There were several bright flashes as Starfire pushed the monster back with a flurry of starbolts. Conner pinned down one of the flailing tentacles and Raven cut it off with a blade of black light.

 _This is above your weight class_ , Robin told himself. _Fall back, analyze, strategize. Everything has a weak point._ He ran towards the pile of old rubble, half-sunken into the sand, that Miss Martian had dragged Trey and and his dog behind. The Great Dane was snarling angrily, hackles raised, ears lying back flat. Trey was crouched down with an arm over the dog's neck, gaze fixed on the monster, which had to be visible to him only in the flashes of light from Starfire's powers and Cyborg's laser blasts. Despite the size of the creature, Trey didn't look afraid. He was watched it with his eyes narrowed.

"I'll protect them," Robin said, raising his cloak to shield himself from a spray of water.

Miss Martian nodded, shapeshifting back to her usual appearance. " _I can't get into its mind,_ " she said, sounding troubled. " _I don't think it_ has _one._ "

"It's got tentacles, worry about those!" Cyborg yelled aloud. Miss Martian flew off to help him fend off the long appendages that were striking randomly at the beach.

"Are you okay?" Robin asked Trey.

"Uhhh… yeah," Trey said, blinking at Robin in confusion. "...What's happening?"

"Just stay close," Robin said, turning to watch the monster. " _Miss Martian!"_ He thought as loudly as he could. " _Raven! Can you lift it telepathically out of the water?"_

" _You got a plan, Robin?_ " Beast Boy asked. He'd turned into a gigantic seagull and was tugging at one of the creature's tentacles.

" _Looking for a weak point,_ " Robin replied. Miss Martian and Raven's eyes glowed as the two psychics began pouring power into pulling the huge creature out of the water. _It's got a mouth and a hell of a lot of fangs, but-are those gills? Dammit, I can't quite see from this distance if those are gills under the scales…_

"Look out!" Trey yelled, tackling Robin to the ground as a tentacle whipped closely over their heads. It got close enough for Robin to see that it was covered in ridges of sharp-looking barbs.

"Good night vision," Robin gasped. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Trey said, looking back up at the monster. Up close, he struck Robin as faintly familiar, but he couldn't place the guy right away and he didn't have time to dwell on it. With Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy all gripping tentacles and pulling to assist Miss Martian and Raven's powers, the creature was almost entirely out of the water. It had no arms or legs, just a huge, fanged mouth and a dozen tentacles.

 _There-those_ are _gills!_ " _It can't breathe out of the water!_ " he reported psychically to the rest of the team. " _If we can damage its gills, it won't be able to breathe even if it falls back into the water! Hit the gills!_ " He charged up an explosive birdarang, flinging it as hard as he could. The creature roared in agony.

" _Got it,_ " Superboy though. Sand was blasted into the air by the force of the half-Kryptonian's leap as he jumped onto the sea monster and started pummelling it. The creature's cries and struggling rapidly weakened as it struggled to breathe out of the water.

" _Can't… hold it… for long…_ " Raven said, her mental voice faint and strained.

" _Throw it at the beach!"_ Miss Martian ordered. They all hurled the creature onto the shore a ways down the beach from Robin and Trey, where it lay limp and still.

" _Good call, Robin,_ " Superboy said, hopping down from the monster. " _This thing could've been the source of that signal-maybe it was being deployed from somewhere._ "

Robin and Trey stood up, dusting sand off of themselves. They turned at the sound of a loud bark-the dog was still standing several feet away, still growling unhappily.

"Ace!" Trey yelled in relief, running over to fall to his knees and wrap his arms around his dog's neck. "Glad you're okay, boy," he murmured as the dog ecstatically licked his face.

"Can't remember how you got here, but you remember your dog's name? Glad to see your memory's got its priorities!" Beast Boy said brightly.

"I hope that neither of you are injured," Starfire said, floating over to the pair with a concerned expression.

"No, we're fine," Trey said, goggling at her "...What the hell are you guys?"

"We're with the Justice League," Superboy explained.

"You _are_ injured," Raven said, pointing at Trey's left shoulder, where a dark stain was seeping through a tear in his jacket.

"Aw, slag it," Trey exclaimed, craning around to look at the wound. "This is the only jacket I've got! I think..."

"You must've gotten hit when you saved me," Robin said, feeling guilty. _I should've been more alert. A_ civilian _shouldn't have been hurt protecting_ me. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Trey said, tugging at his jacket and making a face at the wound.

"Why don't you come with us?" Miss Martian offered. "We can patch you up and try to find out who you are."

"Thanks," Trey said gratefully. "Justice League? So you guys are superheroes or something?"

{}

{}

 _This is a concept that's been bouncing around my head for a while-I'm glad I finally came up with a plot for it. I want to send out all of my love to Isis_the_Sphinx and my dear Senpai, Embleer_Frith0323, for helping me hammer out several ideas and threads for this fic and for being fantastic casual beta readers. We all love Terry dearly and I'm having a lot of fun writing him and the rest of the Batfam for this. Special bonus brownie points of love to Isis_the_Sphinx for helping me get a goddamn title for this thing._

 _Also, just to pre-empt any disappointment, I wanted to put YJ versions of Raven, Starfire and Cyborg in this, but it's more for my own amusement than because they're particularly crucial to the story, which is mainly gonna be focused on the Batfam. This is primarily a_ Batman Beyond _crossover, not a_ Teen Titans _crossover._

 _I'm not gonna start properly posting this until I finish_ A Better Cage, _mainly as a tactic to make my ass actually string together the rest of the scenes I've got for that fic to_ FINISH _it, but I wanted to post a taster to gauge interest and therefore motivate myself to get on with it faster XD_


	2. Chapter 2

{ _Connecticut_ }

{ _July 8, 23:04 EDT_ }

{ _2018-Team Year Eight}_

Robin kept an eye on Trey the whole flight to Bludhaven. Nightwing had a couple of bunkers that they could use to bring in and hide threatened civilians without compromising anything vital, and on request had texted the address of one to Robin, so they were taking Trey there directly. The guy seemed oblivious of being watched, though his dog kept glaring at Robin, growling under its breath. It only seemed to hate Robin-it was friendly enough to the rest of the team, happy to lick Starfire's hand and exchange butt-sniffs with Beast Boy in dog form, but whenever Robin went too close it _snarled_. He could only conclude that he'd crossed paths with Trey and his dog before, a suspicion strengthened by the way that Trey looked so damn _familiar_ , but Robin's memory was, unusually, failing him. He'd never had this much trouble placing somebody before.

Nightwing's spare bunker was in a disused factory, supplies and equipment buried among the dead assembly lines and empty offices. A collapsed roof gave Miss Martian space to land the Bio-ship inside of an empty warehouse, from where Robin led them into the old factory floor where the main computer setup was hidden. Though the place looked dilapidated, Robin had already remotely accessed the security system to get them in without setting anything off and knew the place to be swarming with hidden sensors and cameras.

"Robin, where are the medical supplies?" Miss Martian asked as Robin pulled aside an access hatch to a hollowed-out machine, revealing the customized above-the-top-of-the-line computer hidden inside.

"I'll go get them-Raven, can you come help?" Robin asked, looking to the hooded girl.

Raven raised an eyebrow but followed without saying anything until they were out of earshot of the others. "You're suspicious of him," she stated flatly as Robin led her to a production bin that had a medical kit hidden under a tarpaulin inside.

"I'm sure I've seen him before, and his dog definitely remembers me, but I can't place him," Robin explained. "I need a blood sample to DNA test-he might be in Batman's systems. But I don't think I can get near him without that dog snapping my hand off…"

"Why not tell the others if you're suspicious?" Raven queried as he passed her the medical kit.

"I will, but Miss Martian hasn't restored the psychic link and I don't want to tip him off that I'm suspicious of him," Robin said, stepping back.

Raven nodded silently and headed back to the still assembly line that the rest of the team were sitting on. Robin followed, returning to the computer terminal and logging in to start a search for "Trey Malone", "Trae Malone" and every other spelling he could think of. He kept an eye on Trey out of the corner of his eye as Superboy helped the stranger take off his shirt and jacket without aggravating the open wound on his shoulder.

"Dude!" Beast Boy exclaimed as Trey's shirt came off. "What war were _you_ in?!"

Trey had a _lot_ of scars-Robin's expert eye picked out wounds caused by knives, gunshots, broken bones and some odd wounds that looked like deep cigarette burns. The Team was staring in open shock, but Trey just looked confused. "Huh," he said, poking at a relatively fresh-looking, still-pink slash over his right shoulder that went down almost to his collarbone. It was bleeding a little, having been reopened by the sea monster's attack, though not as badly as the fresh cut over his left shoulder joint. "What war _was_ I in?" The dog licked his arm and whined.

Robin tore his gaze away, looking back to the computer. Trey, or Trae, Malone wasn't an uncommon name in the US-a broad search had already thrown up hundreds of results, and that was the US alone, going off the guy's accent. Robin entered an age range to narrow the results, then started manually scanning photographs, deleting those disqualified by ethnicity or facial features too different from Trey's. He started going through social media, removing several who'd recently posted shirtless selfies showing a lack of Trey's distinctive scarring, one who was at that moment livestreaming a show at Disneyworld on facebook, and a couple more who were presently doing time for drug possession after a check of their prisons confirmed that they were still in custody. The deeper he dug, the more prospects were disqualified until he was left with… nothing.

"I'd better stop there," said Raven, who had been using healing magic on Trey's shoulder. "I couldn't completely heal it, but I can't overuse my power." She wiped some blood off of Trey's shoulder with a cotton pad.

"You did great!" Beast Boy cheered.

"It'll heal quicker thanks to you," Miss Martian said encouragingly, picking up the bandages. "Starfire, can you pass me the medical tape?"

"Of course!" Starfire said chirpily, picking up the roll of white tape and presenting it with a flourish. "Do not fear, Trey-though we are not doctors, we are very experienced in the treatment of human injuries!"

"That's… great?" Trey said, giving her a slightly bemused thumbs-up.

Robin expanded the search outside of the US-accents were easily faked, after all. But the name was far less common in other countries, and it took him far less time to investigate and discredit all possibilities.

So "Trey Malone" was a fake name. Whether the guy they'd brought back was lying or just confused depended on whether or not his amnesia was fake. Between the fake name and scars, he definitely cut a suspicious figure.

"Anything?" Superboy asked Robin, coming over with Cyborg to look at the computer.

"Looks like a whole lotta nothin' to me," Cyborg observed, looking at all the marked-out results on the screen.

"I haven't found him yet," Robin admitted. Raven drifted over to look, slipping the cotton pad that she'd used to wipe Trey's shoulder to Robin surreptitiously. Bless her and her Batman-like suspicious streak. "Cyborg, can you take over, set up a search for anybody who might be Trey in the Missing Persons database?" he asked. "I want to try and find Nightwing's crime lab-I might be able to run some tests on the bits of that sea monster we brought back."

"Sure," Cyborg said, taking Robin's place in front of the computer and connecting it to his own systems.

"Wake me when you find something," Raven said, settling into a meditation pose. Robin did a spot check on the rest of the team-Miss Martian and Starfire were both chatting to Trey as he pulled his shirt back on, hopefully trying to sense out his thoughts and feelings as well as being friendly; Beast Boy had turned into a dog again and was chatting to Trey's dog; Superboy was watching Cyborg search through Missing Persons reports.

Robin knew full well that Nightwing's crime lab was in an old office and headed straight for it with the cotton pad of Trey's blood. His own glove computer could hook him up to Batman's database to compare DNA with.

{ _Bludhaven_ }

{ _July 8, 23:59 EDT_ }

{ _2018-Team Year Eight}_

"Yo… Robin?"

"Hey, Beast Boy," Robin said, looking up as Beast Boy, still shaped like a large, green dog, padded into the bio-lab. He turned off the monitor where his search on Trey's DNA was ticking over and shifted his seat to face a bit of the sea monster in a petri dish. Beast Boy didn't seem to notice, shifting back to mostly-humanoid form with a troubled expression. "Is something wrong?"

"Ace told me why he hates you," Beast Boy sighed, folding his arms on an empty counter and leaning his head on them. "You're a bad human who hurt his… I wanna say 'master' but it's not a totally accurate word for how a dog feels about their favourite human, it's more like halfway between 'parent' and 'god'. Weird thing is, that favourite human isn't Trey. I mean, Trey's definitely his _pack_ , just not _the_ human to him, y'know?"

"Okay, I have to know: does shapeshifting into animals let you _talk_ to them, or is it a psychic translation thing, like Miss Martian does?" Robin asked curiously.

"Nah, neither, I just know about animal body language," Beast Boy said casually. "The way he behaves towards you, Trey, the others… aggression signals, affection signals… Man, I _wish_ I could read his mind. Bet he'd be able to tell us something about who Trey is and where he comes from, huh?"

"You think Miss Martian _could_ read Ace's mind?" Robin asked thoughtfully. "It'd save us a lot of searching…"

"Eh… even if she _would_ , I don't think she'd get anything useful," Beast Boy sighed. "Dogs don't form memories the way we do. Anyway, a dog can't meaningfully consent to a mind probe, and you _know_ how strict she is about that kinda thing when we're not in combat."

Robin nodded. "Has Cyborg found anything?" he asked.

"Nah… he wants to know if you have any ideas," Beast Boy said, sitting up. "Like, Ace knows you, so maybe you know him?"

"He seems familiar, but I can't place him," Robin admitted. "But if I hurt some other human close to them, it must be somebody I've fought on a mission or back on Gotham. Trey might've been there too… I just wish I could remember," he sighed in frustration. "He might've been on somebody's crew and I've seen his face but not really _noticed_ him, but still, I usually have a better memory for faces, even if I only got a glimpse…"

"Hey, if anybody'll figure it out, it's you," Beast Boy said, grinning as he sat up and poked Robin's forehead with one finger. "After all, that's the biggest brain on the Team in there. I bet you'll sleuth up _something_."

"Thanks, Gar," Robin said with a smile.

"Gar? There you are," Superboy said, stepping into the lab. "C'mon, M'gann's gonna fly you, Kori, Raven and Vic home. It's late here and Qurac's seven hours ahead."

"But we don't know about Trey yet!" Beast Boy protested.

"Robin, are you up to keep investigating for a while longer?" Superboy asked. Robin nodded. "I'll stay here and keep an eye on Trey while you do. I'll zeta back myself later. Go on."

"Fiiiiiiiine… see ya, Rob," Gar grumbled, slouching out of the door. A minute wince crossed Superboy's face.

"Nightwing gets off of his day job at two, I'll call him in then to help," Robin offered. "Batman, Spoiler and Black Bat are already busy on another investigation."

Superboy nodded. "Did you get anything from Trey's blood?" he asked.

Robin had long stopped being surprised by how unexpectedly perceptive the half-Kryptonian could be-Superboy wasn't a trained detective, but he'd been friends with Nightwing long enough to pick up a few things, and he really knew how to use his super senses to pick up information. He didn't bother asking whether Superboy had seen Raven handing him the cotton pad or if he'd just smelled the blood. "Not sure," Robin said, turning the computer monitor back on. There was a result. "Huh. _He's_ not in my database, but there is a match to…"

"Robin?" Superboy asked in concern after several moments of silence. "You've gone white…"

"That can't be right," Robin muttered, shutting down the program and rebooting it. "No _way_ he's…"

"Robin?" Superboy asked. "What is it? Did you find something?"

"I think it was a mistake," Robin said, going back to the cotton pad. "If… if you get a chance, can you get another blood sample from him, or some hair? Ask if he's willing to give some for me to do a DNA search, help me narrow down who he is. If he says no, try and sneak some anyway." _He couldn't be… but if he is, I want to be_ sure.

"Okay," Superboy said with a nod. "Comm me if you come up with anything or if you need anything, okay? Or, hell, just yell out, I'll keep an ear out for you."

"Sure, sure," Robin murmured, starting to make a fresh sample of Trey's DNA from the blood sample. He didn't see the concerned look Superboy gave him as the older hero backed out of the room.

{ _Bludhaven_ }

{ _July 9, 01:54 EDT_ }

{ _2018-Team Year Eight}_

"You'd better finish those reports before you clock off to see that girl you're texting," Amy said threateningly as she walked past the desk where Dick was struggling with the Bludhaven Police Department's antique computer system.

"It's a guy, actually," Dick said, longing for the laptop that Babs had built him for his 21st birthday. _I could file these reports faster writing them out by hand, even in triplicate!_

"The gay guys only like you for the puns, rookie," Amy warned as she walked away.

"I think you're underselling my very fine ass," Dick called after her, checking his texts again as another one came through from Tim. His little brother-as good as, anyway, if not legally-was getting increasingly antsy about an amnesiac drifter that the team had picked up near the ruins of Mount Justice. The guy was either lying about his name or wasn't on any databases, and Tim was sure that they'd crossed paths before, so he'd run some DNA tests and whatever he'd found had him frantically messaging Dick to tell him to come in as soon as possible. The kid sounded spooked, and Dick was dying to knock off of his day job and change into Nightwing so he could go see for himself.

By the time he _finally_ got out of work, drove home, showered and changed and headed out to the spare bunker, it was nearly empty. Conner was at the computer terminal, checking something. A stranger, presumably Trey, was stretched out on one of the assembly lines, having a nap, one arm flung over his eyes and the other dangling near the floor. The Great Dane that Tim had mentioned Trey having woke up, stared at Dick for a long moment with its nose twitching, before yawning and lying back down on the floor next to Trey's dangling hand.

"Where's everybody else?" Dick asked quietly as he crept silently over to Conner.

"M'gann took the others home," Conner said, giving Dick a ' _don't start_ ' look. Dick had been overjoyed for his friends when M'gann and Conner had gotten back together during M'gann's sabbatical from the Team, time she'd spent caring for Gar and the animals that Marie Logan had loved. The time seemed to have made her less aggressive than she'd become and much more strict with herself in how she used her psychic abilities. Conner's faith in her had become strong enough that when Dick had tracked down a time-space distortion, hoping to find Wally and instead finding an unconscious girl with purple hair, literally grey skin and overwhelming psychic abilities, Conner had suggested sending Raven to live with M'gann to learn to control her power. They'd been joined six months later by Koriand'r, an alien refugee who had a great deal of emotion-based power and whose orange skin and iris-less, solid green eyes made it hard for her to blend in among humans, just like Gar and Raven. That had been around the time that Dick had started joking about Conner and M'gann adopting more kids than Batman. He figured it was Conner's own parentless life that made him somewhat touchy about the subject, but from Dick's perspective as an adopted kid himself, the pair of them were parenting the _hell_ out of their own little subset of the Team, and doing a pretty good job of it. It certainly hadn't stopped them taking in Victor after he'd become Cyborg-he'd desperately needed somewhere to go as, aside from his cybernetic enhancements making him unwilling to go out in public much, his relationship with his father had gotten so bad that he refused to live at home anymore.

The accident and enhancements had only been five months ago. Dick hoped that Victor would learn to find some peace with his new state of being and forgive his father for it. After all, they were both still alive.

"Everyone?" Dick asked, looking around.

"When we couldn't find a thing anywhere on the computers, Robin started running some DNA tests," Conner said, nodding in the direction of Dick's crime lab. "I stayed to keep an eye on this guy while he did that."

Dick chanced another look at Trey, who was still completely sacked out, breathing deep and steady. His head was pillowed on his jacket, and on the exposed stretches of his arms Dick could see a few defensive wounds, some jagged scars from when bones had been broken badly enough to force through the skin, and the knuckle calluses of an extremely experienced fighter. "He's messaged me a few times to say he found something, but I don't know what," Dick said quietly. "Do you know anything?"

Conner shook his head. "Haven't seen him for a couple hours," he said, frowning. "I've been keeping an ear out for him, but he's just… working. The one time I looked in, he looked like he'd found something that startled him, but he wouldn't tell me what it was."

Dick nodded, and headed through to his crime lab. Tim was staring at something on a monitor that he'd connected his glove computer to, looking pale and nervous. "I've re-tested his DNA eight times, blood and hair," Tim said as Dick stepped into the room, "and it's the same result every time. From _our_ DNA files, by the way. I wanted to run it by you before I told anybody..."

"In our database? He's definitely somebody we've come up against before, then?" Dick said uneasily as he crossed the room. "Or related to somebody?"

"Oh, he's related to somebody," Tim said, stepping aside and gesturing to the screen, which was displaying a paternity match.

Bruce Wayne.

"I thought he looked familiar when I saw him," Tim said quietly. "His dog hated me on sight, so I thought maybe he was a criminal we'd busted in Gotham at some point, maybe working for a face. I did a DNA check and…"

Dick stared blankly at the screen. There was no point in asking for another re-test-he knew how thorough Tim was.

Bruce's son. Bruce's _biological_ son.

He felt an entirely unwarranted pang of dislike for the young man sleeping on the factory floor and shoved it down. He thought he'd outgrown the only-child jealousy over sharing Bruce's attention after a while with the Team-it hadn't bothered him at all to adopt Jason, who as far as he was concerned was still his little brother whom he loved dearly no matter _what_ he was doing (or killing) now. He loved Tim like a brother too, and they _had_ as good adopted the kid, what with how often he stayed at the Manor while his parents were abroad, which was most of the time. Faking up a positive paternity test for Bruce so they could get custody of Cassandra quickly and with only half as much fake paperwork to cover her mystery background had been downright _fun_ , and it was impossible not to love his silent but affectionate sister. Still, more than a decade of everybody from paparazzos to classmates to drunk party guests insinuating that Bruce had to have an illegitimate kid or two out there, and that as soon as one surfaced Dick would be kicked to the curb, was giving him an unaccustomed pang of nerves over the prospect of telling Bruce about Trey. Watching the tabloids _explode_ over Cassandra had been pretty funny sometimes, but more than a few had gone into some unpleasant speculation about Dick's place in the family as a result. One had even accused him, after he'd escorted Cassandra to her first Wayne Gala, of attempting to _seduce_ "the real Wayne child" to "stay in the family", which was wrong on so many levels that he couldn't even _begin_ to process it.

But it had all been _pretend_ , a show to cover up Cassandra's murky past. Even if Trey was for real, in his head Dick knew it shouldn't change anything. Dick _knew_ that Bruce would never abandon him, that they were father and son even if they used those terms between themselves about as often as Bruce and Alfred did, that Bruce had always insisted that if it _did_ turn out that he had a real biological child that it wouldn't change anything between them, legally or otherwise. Dick had loved having Jason as a little brother, he loved having Tim as a little brother, he loved having Cassandra as a little sister-what was wrong with adding another brother to the family?

Still… Bruce's _biological_ son. His _real_ biological child.

There was no way this wasn't going to be complicated.

"Do you know how old he is?" Dick asked levelly.

"He thinks twenty," Tim said, giving Dick a nervous look. "DNA puts him in that range."

Dick nodded, trying to think back over what he knew of Bruce's personal history. Trey was about Dick's age. Allowing a broad window for twenty, and reeling back further to the window of conception, put them straight in the middle of the years that Bruce had spent travelling outside of Gotham, years that Bruce always refused to talk about in detail and thus Dick only knew patchy bits about, usually from stories that started like "once, when I was in Cairo as part of a travelling magician's act…"

"Okay," Dick said after letting his wheels spin for a bit. "I'm gonna call Bruce. He needs to know, and he's got a better shot than any of us at figuring out who Trey is. He'll probably have an idea of who Trey's mother could be, at least. We can work from there."

Tim nodded, then tried to suppress a face-cracking yawn. "I'm not tired," he said defensively when Dick chuckled.

"It's past two am, Tim," Dick pointed out. "I've got some motorbikes hidden in the crates in the warehouse next door. Go home and sleep. I'll handle this."

Tim grumbled but stood up, heading for the factory floor. "Watch out for him," he said, looking back as he stopped in the doorway. "I don't know if you read the report, but we got attacked by something on the beach near Mount Justice. It was some kind of sea monster, this _huge_ thing, and… you didn't see how he reacted. He wasn't afraid, he was… calculating. He was ready to fight that thing himself if we hadn't been there. He's _dangerous_."

Dick nodded, thinking of the scars on Trey's arms. Oh, yeah. This was gonna be _complicated_.

{}

{}

 _Merry Christmas folks, now that_ A Better Cage _is finished I'm gonna focus more on this! I can't promise regular updates but this is now my primary DC-fic project :)_

 _Also not that I'm not DELIGHTED that my favourite Batgirl is gonna be in YJ season 3 as Spoiler, and I know that Batfam characters tend to take over properties that they're in, but I still demand more love and respect from DC as a company for my beloved daughter Cassandra Cain, and until she gets it I guess i'm going to have to give her all the love myself._


	3. Chapter 3

{ _Gotham_ }

{ _July 9, 04:08 EDT_ }

{ _2018-Team Year Eight}_

A quiet night, sir," Alfred commented as Bruce stepped out of the Batmobile at the shockingly early hour of four am. "You may yet achieve more than two hours of sleep a night."

"A quiet night in Gotham just means the calm before the storm, Alfred," Bruce grouched, pulling back his cowl and heading for the main computer. Nightwing had pinged him about an hour and a half back, asking Bruce to call when he finished patrol, stating that it wasn't urgent but it was important. With the unusual quiet in Gotham, curiosity had urged Bruce back to the Cave to call his oldest son, leaving Black Bat and Spoiler to handle the rest of the patrol. Stephanie was much less experienced than Cassandra, but they were a good team, and it wasn't as if they had school in the morning.

He started accessing the Team's reports as he dialled Dick's number, wondering how Tim and Barbara's missions had gone. Sometimes he wondered how he'd gone from grudgingly allowing one Robin into his life to keeping track of five young heroes-six, if you counted Jason. Even if he was no longer a hero, he was still Bruce's responsibility.

Dick picked up the instant Bruce called. " _Early night, Bruce_?" he gasped in mock shock.

"Save the sass, Alfred's better at it," Bruce said. "What happened?"

Dick sighed heavily. " _Okay. I'm sending you the DNA test results of an amnesiac drifter calling himself Trey Malone that Robin's team picked up earlier. The name's probably fake, but since we couldn't ID him and couldn't find any Missing or Wanted Persons matching his description, Robin did a DNA test and got a match._ "

"From our database?" Bruce said, looking at the two reports from the team that Tim had been on. The first described a successful bust of an Intergang group smuggling weapons, with nine arrests and a reasonable quantity of seized goods, and the second was of a sea monster attack near the remains of Mount Justice, including the pickup of a stranger with no ID who'd been mildly injured in the attack. An email arrived with the DNA results and Bruce opened them up scanning down the page. Trey Malone, 19-21, male… Bruce found his gaze drawn past the phenotype information to the phrase _PATERNITY MATCH-Bruce Wayne._

"Goodness," Alfred gasped quietly behind him. "...Well, I suppose belated congratulations are in order, sir."

" _Tim re-ran the tests eight times, and this is a match to_ our _database, not any public ones,_ " Dick said. " _Do you know who he is, Bruce?_ "

Bruce looked back to the age estimate, memory scrolling back as he tried to figure out an approximate year, a place and, most crucially, a person. Almost immediately, he hit a roadblock. Going by the test's age estimate, almost the entire period where Trey could have been conceived overlapped with Bruce's time training with the League of Shadows, and that time had been _entirely_ dedicated to training. _Something_ had been growing between him and Talia, but it hadn't been realized until years later… and Trey was much too old to be the child that he and Talia had lost, more than a decade ago, the catalyst for losing forever any chance of their relationship working out.

Trey had to be younger-or possibly older. Bruce had had more than his share of teenage relationships, though he couldn't think of anybody he'd slept with who could have gotten pregnant without it getting back to him, possibly via an angry father who could afford a whole security detail with shotguns. But that wasn't the most pressing problem.

The problem was that he had a son who'd made it to adulthood without Bruce knowing a thing about him.

Trey _Malone_ , he'd said. Bruce hadn't ever slept with anybody as Matches Malone, and even if he had, he hadn't even _started_ using that identity until about fourteen years ago. It was an identity he used for getting information at seedy poker games and dingy bars, not romancing. Nevertheless, Bruce Wayne did not believe in coincidence. There had to be some kind of connection.

"Sir?" Alfred said, snapping his fingers a few times in front of Bruce's face.

"Sorry, Alfred, didn't hear you," Bruce said, pulling himself out of his thoughts.

"It was Master Dick who spoke, not I," Alfred said, though there wasn't as much rebuke to it as there might usually be. "What do you propose that we do about the young man?"

"Tell him the DNA results and bring him to Gotham," Bruce decided. "But keep the night job out of it for now. Until we figure out exactly who he is and where he came from, it's better that we don't tell him too much. Let's try and keep press involvement minimal, too-they're only just starting to lose interest in Cass, and we don't need another explosion like that yet. We'll probably have to go for an official DNA test at some point, and then it'll only be a matter of time before somebody tips off a journalist, but until we know who he is and where he came from…"

" _Don't know who his mom is, huh? Oh, Brucie,_ " Dick said. He was going for a jokey tone, but the attempt was unusually weak.

"Not until we get a more accurate estimate of his age," Bruce hedged. He'd probably have to compare notes with Alfred, but he couldn't think of anybody he'd slept with who could have kept a pregnancy secret-or rather, he could, but all of them would show up on his DNA databases. He'd had an uncomfortable moment when he thought of his times training in the League-there were so many different exercises undertaken in altered states of mind, so many drugs designed to alter or obscure memories… but Talia was in his DNA database. If she was Trey's mother, the system would have matched her as surely as it had matched him.

"Will you be fetching Master Trey yourself?" Alfred asked.

Bruce shook his head. "If he really does have amnesia, this could be a lot for him to take in," he said. "It might be easier on him to meet his brother before me." _You're still my son, Dick. So's Jason, no matter where he is and what he's doing now. This boy doesn't change that._

" _Sure, I can bring him, but… we need to be careful of this guy, Bruce,_ " Dick said uneasily. " _According to Superboy, Miss Martian offered to do a mind probe to find his missing memories and he refused, saying it sounded too frightening. You know how she is about non-combat mind probes these days-she didn't push it. But the upshot is that we don't know if the amnesia's real, and Superboy added that it was kind of funny that the guy's scared of a mind probe when he wasn't scared of a giant sea monster attacking from the ocean. Robin says that he responded like a fighter, and that when they were patching up a minor wound he got, he was covered in scars. He's walked away from a_ lot _of fights. Until we know more about him…_ "

"Understood," Bruce said, filing away the suspicions. There was a lot of inherent weirdness in a son that he was sure he couldn't have fathered turning up on League property; this could very easily be a trap designed by somebody who knew that Bruce wouldn't hesitate to take Trey in.

His thoughts went back to Ra's Al Ghul. If anybody would try to strike at Batman by attacking him as Bruce Wayne, it would be the undying leader of the League of Assassins.

He _wouldn't_ hesitate to take Trey in, but it never hurt to be cautious.

" _There's one more thing you should know,_ " Dick added.

"What's that?"

 _He's got a dog. A great dane._ "

"...I suppose I shall see to a supply of dog food as soon as I've made up a room," Alfred said dryly. "A _lot_ of dog food."

{ _Gotham_ }

{ _July 9, 04:16 EDT_ }

{ _2018-Team Year Eight}_

When the yell echoed out from the factory floor, Dick was on his feet and running with his escrima in hand before he'd even consciously registered the sound.

Conner was standing, but he wasn't glaring at any attacking enemies, just staring in concern at Trey. The guy was sitting upright, a hand pressed over his eyes, breathing heavy and erratic. The dog had his head pressed to Trey's legs where he'd swung them over the edge of the conveyer belt and was staring up at his master, whining until Trey pet him.

"I'm okay, Ace," Trey said, sounding anything but. "Just a nightmare."

A nightmare that woke him up screaming. Dick knew all about _those_. There was a good chance that Trey's nightmare was about a memory, though Dick deemed this an inappropriate time to ask. Instead, he waited until Trey's breathing calmed, then stepped forwards, deliberately making sound. Not a _lot_ of sound, nothing that a normal person would probably pay attention to, but just enough that anybody with any training would immediately notice his presence.

Trey whipped around to stare at Dick with wide eyes and-no _wonder_ Tim had thought the guy looked familiar. Dick hadn't gotten a full look at Trey's face before, but from the nose upwards, the guy _was_ Bruce. His eyes were even the exact same ice-blue.

"Trey, right?" Dick asked carefully. "Are you okay?" Trey was staring at Dick in absolute shock. _Does he recognize Nightwing? Does he have reason to be afraid of me? Christ, I'm sure I'd_ remember _if I'd ever seen_ this _guy before…_

"Trey?" Conner asked.

Trey shuddered, shaking his head, then wiped a hand over his eyes. "Sorry, brain's not awake yet," he muttered. "I'm okay. Uh…" he squinted at Dick. "...Who're you? You weren't one of the ones who found me…"

"I'm Nightwing," Dick said, part of him hoping Trey's brain would _stay_ offline. Dick was going to have to pick the guy up later as Officer Grayson, and he knew from experience that if anybody was going to catch out a secret identity, it was somebody who met both of your identities for the first time on the same day. People needed time to get to know one side before they met the other, because you always notice the most about a person when you first meet them. He'd spent _months_ establishing himself in Bludhaven as Nightwing before actually moving there to minimize the chances of anybody in the BPD making a connection, though he suspected that he could wear a domino mask and carry some escrima into work one day without some of the "detectives" he worked with noticing anything unusual.

The point was that, once people had an _idea_ of who you were established in their minds, they'd excuse a lot of oddness that didn't fit that idea because ignoring anything that doesn't fit your idea is easier than changing it. Unlearning that was what separated the good detectives from the wastes who'd just wind up trying to wrap up a case as quickly as possible, never mind if they found the truth or not. But he wasn't going to have time to really establish _Nightwing_ to this guy before introducing Officer Grayson. If Trey had inherited more than just Bruce's eyes, nose and cheekbones, any chance of keeping the night job a secret would be blown as soon as he laid eyes on Officer Grayson… and that was if this wasn't all some kind of setup from the start.

"Okay… hi, Nightwing," Trey said, holding out his hand. "I'm Trey Malone, I think, and this is Ace." The dog barked loudly, thumping his tail and trying to lick Dick's hand when he reached out to shake Trey's. Whatever problem the dog had with Robin apparently didn't extend to Nightwing.

"Okay, Trey, I understand you have amnesia?" Dick said. Trey nodded, rubbing his head with a sheepish expression. "Well, we did some blood tests-you did kinda bleed on my bunker, which makes a nice change from _me_ bleeding all over my bunker. We couldn't find you in any missing persons databases, but we did get a match on your DNA."

"What?! You did?!" Trey gasped, staring at Dick in surprise. "How… I mean, who? You have my DNA on file?! Who am I?"

"We didn't find _your_ DNA," Dick said, a little surprised by the intensity of Trey's shock. _He's that surprised that we found him? He doesn't seem excited, just… shocked. Did he think that a DNA search wouldn't turn up a result… or shouldn't?_ "We got a paternity match for a man we once investigated," he lied. If anybody ever needed to know why Batman had Bruce Wayne's DNA on file, that was the stock reason; it would probably be more surprising if Batman had _never_ investigated one of the richest men in the world who owned a sizeable portion of business and pretty much all charitable institutions in Gotham. "He was innocent, don't worry. You're not related to a criminal. Your father, according to the DNA tests, is Bruce Wayne."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Conner's jaw drop, but it was Trey's reaction that was _really_ fascinating. The guy went white as a sheet and actually took a step backwards as he gaped at Dick.

"Wh… _what_ ," Trey croaked. "What?"

"You know who he is?" Dick asked carefully.

"He's… he's... isn't he is that-that mega, _incredibly_ rich, famous guy?" Trey stammered. "I mean… if I'm some super rich dude's kid, why do I look like I fought a blender and barely escaped?" He gestured to his exposed forearms.

"We don't know," Dick admitted. "He also, as far as we can tell, doesn't know about you-there's no public or legal record of you, and he was pretty surprised when I contacted him to tell him that we picked you up. He wants to meet you, though. He has an adopted son who's a police officer here in Bludhaven who can arrange to pick you up and bring you to Gotham if you're up for it."

Trey looked dazed for a long moment, long enough for Ace to rear up on his hind legs and lick his cheek. "Sure," Trey said, petting Ace vaguely. "I mean… where else am I gonna go?"

{}

{}

 _Have a Christmas double-feature. Merry Crimbo ficbomb! I promise that this entire fic isn't solely batfam members brooding on their complicated family situations, but, well… they are who they are, that's what they do._


	4. Chapter 4

{ _Bludhaven_ }

{ _July 9, 04:42 EDT_ }

{ _2018-Team Year Eight}_

Dick ran his hands through his hair for perhaps the eightieth time since he'd left to 'speak to Officer Grayson'. He'd showered, changed, picked a distinct but not overwhelming cologne, and spent more time restyling his hair and picking his clothes than he did for most dates. He needed to minimize the visual similarities between Dick Grayson and Nightwing, but he also felt more nervous than he'd expected to about properly meeting his new brother. The guy was about his age, rather than being a kid brother like Jason and Tim when they'd first met or even just a few years younger like Cassandra, and that had Dick a little off-balance. Plus, there were all the oddities-Trey's scars, Tim's report of his behaviour on the beach, his extreme shock at Dick revealing that Bruce Wayne was his father. The reason Trey had given, surprise at being related to somebody wealthy and famous, wasn't implausible, but seemed inadequate for the strength of Trey's reaction. It wasn't overplayed fake surprise, but genuine shock. The thought struck Dick that perhaps Trey _was_ a trap and just didn't know it-his amnesia might be genuine, obscuring his true intentions even from himself. He might have been given false information about himself to work from, hence his surprise at what he thought he knew being contradicted. The one thing that seemed certain was that somebody, most likely Trey's mother but possibly somebody else, had been keeping him secret from Bruce-but why?

Dick mulled the idea over as he drove to the place where he'd agreed with Conner to meet. They were in a neighbourhood that was pretty bad even by Bludhaven's standards, but even if Conner and Trey weren't both intimidatingly bulky guys, Dick figured the sight of Ace would give the most desperate mugger pause.

He rolled down his window as he approached the corner where the trio were waiting, peering uncertainly at the them as if trying to decide if they were who he was looking for or not. "Excuse me," he called, "are you… Trey…?"

"Officer Grayson?" Conner said. "Nightwing told us about you." He sounded painfully awkward; he'd never been much good at compartmentalizing between "superhero" and "secret identity", probably a side-effect of his superhero life being much more his real life than his secret identity was. Dick wasn't sure that Conner had spent much time _having_ a secret identity since graduating from college, aside from keeping up with some friends on Facebook. The ease with which Dick switched between the two halves of his life always seemed to disquiet the half-Kryptonian.

"Nightwing told me about you, too," Dick said, leaning out a little more to look at Trey. "Damn," he commented, "you really _look_ like Bruce." Trey jerked, looking startled. "Dick Grayson," Dick said, holding his hand out to Trey.

"Trey Malone," Trey said, shaking Dick's hand. "And this is Ace," he added, gesturing to the dog.

"Hey, Ace, nice to meet you, too," Dick said, letting Ace sniff his hand before scratching the dog's ears. "Is he okay to ride in a car?"

"I think so. I mean… he was fine in the alien spaceship or whatever we got picked up in earlier," Trey said, looking in the back of the car. "Is it okay to let him onto the back seat?"

"Sure," Dick said, reaching back to move a box of case files onto the floor and then unlocking the car doors. As soon as Trey opened the back door, Ace hopped in, stretching himself contentedly across the back seat. He looked comfortable enough with the vehicle, even yawning and settling down for a nap.

"If you have any questions about where we found him or what happened, get in touch with Nightwing," Conner said, glancing at Dick. "Robin'll keep an eye out for you in Gotham, Trey."

"Okay. Thanks," Trey said, nodding at Conner. "For everything. Thank the rest of your team for me, too."

"Will do," Conner said, patting Trey on the back and nodding briefly to Dick before stepping back to let Trey get into the front seat next to Dick. The half-Kryptonian stood and watched as Dick pulled away, heading for the road to Gotham just as dawn was breaking.

"You know," Trey said, craning around to watch until Conner was out of sight, "I don't think that guy's human. I mean, I don't think _any_ of them were human."

"Probably not," Dick said vaguely. "I'm not sure any of those capes-and-tights types are. Are you okay? Nightwing said something about a sea monster…"

"I'm fine, they patched me up," Trey said, tapping a bloodstained tear in the shoulder of his jacket. "Do you know that Nightwing guy well?"

 _Take that as an entirely innocent enquiry,_ Dick reminded himself, _even if it isn't._ "I'm not sure anybody does," he said with a shrug, "but most cops around here have met him a couple of times. I've picked up enough weird cases to meet him a few more times than most. I don't know if he's human or not, before you ask."

"That's kinda freaky," Trey observed. "...Does that just seem kinda freaky because I can't remember anything before about six hours ago, or is that really freaky?"

"It's kinda freaky," Dick allowed with a chuckle. He glanced back to check that Ace was behaving in the back seat as he shifted gears to speed up on the freeway, but the dog was dozing calmly across the seat. "So… amnesia, huh?"

Trey nodded. "First thing in my mind is waking up on that beach with Ace," he sighed, propping his elbow up on the window and leaning his forehead against his hand. "Then a bunch of superheroes found me, then a sea monster attacked, then they told me _Bruce Wayne's_ my dad… I have no idea which part's the weirdest."

"Can't blame you for being freaked out," Dick said sympathetically. "I don't think I'd know what to make of it all, either. I _don't_ really know what to make of it. I mean, it's not the first time we've found out about a kid of Bruce's that he didn't know about-if you remember that he's famously rich, you probably remember what _else_ he's famous for. But he's still kicking himself for not knowing about you until now."

"So… you really don't know anything about me?" Trey asked hopelessly.

"Sorry," Dick sighed, "but I promise you, we're going to find out where you're from and what happened to you. Until then, you've got a home and a family, at least. Whatever's happened, whatever's _going_ to happen, you don't have to deal with it alone."

"...Thanks," Trey said quietly, looking away out of the window for a moment before looking back to Dick. "So… you're my adopted brother, huh?"

"Yep," Dick said, smiling comfortingly at Trey. "I live in Bludhaven these days, but I can take some time off and come back to Gotham for a bit if you want a guy your own age around. I love Bruce, Cass and Alfred, but the Manor's a hell of a big, intimidating house."

"Alfred?" Trey asked. "Who's he?"

"Officially, family butler-unofficially, family," Dick said with a chuckle. "He's the _most_ English guy you will ever meet. He raised Bruce after his parents were murdered, and helped raise me when Bruce took me in. The earthly god of cooking, organization and knowing what everybody everywhere is doing at all times. Cass is also around-she's our sister, and your half-sister, I guess. She's seventeen, we think. She's only been living with us about five months, since her mother died. She's got language issues that, um… well, I don't think her childhood's been great to her so far, but we're learning sign language with her, give her a way to communicate. She's pretty affectionate, and she will _absolutely_ hug you if you let her, though. And if you ever come across her while she's dancing, don't make a sound, just _watch_ , she's _amazing_."

"...Okay then," Trey said with a slight smile. It was the first time he'd looked anything other than lost, sad or shocked. "...What's he like? Bruce? For real, I mean. I know the kind of stories you hear about him, but you must know better than the tabloids what he's actually like as a person."

Dick nodded. "Bruce is… he's great, but I'll warn you now, awkward as shit. Like I said, Alfred mostly raised Bruce, and I love Alfred, but he's not exactly emotionally open and he passed that on to Bruce. Even if they can be weird about showing it, though, both of them care a _lot_. Just… with Bruce especially, you might have to just take it on faith that he _is_ trying. He works a lot-as well as running Wayne Enterprises, he runs the Wayne Foundation charities and he takes those _very_ seriously. At the end of the day, he just wants to help people. Y'know, I think I will take some time off to hang around. I'm a master at the art of Bruce Whispering, I'll show you the ropes."

"...Thanks?" Trey said, smiling a little again. "He can't be that bad at it. I mean, he raised you, and you're a pretty nice guy."

"I am indeed very pretty and very nice," Dick agreed with a smirk, finally making Trey laugh. Dick sobered a little when he continued, "other things you should know… there's two things Bruce absolutely will not talk about, or at least won't answer questions about. One's his parents, and the other is Jason."

"Who's Jason?" Trey asked, a guarded expression returning to his face. Dick felt bad about having to puncture the laughs, but they were getting into Gotham and he needed to forewarn Trey about what subjects were, essentially, the West Wing of Wayne Manor.

"I'm telling you now to pre-empt you asking Bruce that question at some point… Jason was my little brother," Dick said solemnly. _Still is,_ he thought stubbornly. "Bruce adopted him when he was twelve. It's… really a longer story than I can get into just now, but he lived on the streets for a long time before Bruce took him in, and sometimes he'd sneak out to go roam his old haunts. One night, he snuck out and… didn't come back. The police found his body a few days later. He was fifteen."

That had been one of the worst parts. Sitting in the Cave with Jason's body, realizing that a plausible explanation for his death meant they'd have to ditch his body somewhere for the police to find, drop it in the icy Gotham River so the water and temperature would mess with the wounds and time of death. Dick hadn't been able to handle it; Bruce had had to knock him out to take Jason's body. He wondered how _Bruce_ had handled it, how it had felt to let Jason go into the water and fly back alone, but Bruce had been closed off when he came back and hadn't come _close_ to opening up again for months, not until after Tim had gently but insistently made his way into their lives. He wondered if Jason knew about any of that now, if it mattered to him what they'd done with his body.

"Shit… I'm sorry," Trey said quietly. "Don't ask about the dead people. Got it."

"Bruce'll sometimes come out with stories unprompted, but he'll shut down if you ask any direct questions," Dick explained. "I don't mind talking about Jason if you ever come across anything you want to ask about, though… a lot of his stuff's still around the Manor in places, especially the books. He was always leaving notes in them." He smiled faintly in nostalgia, even though it somehow hurt even _more_ now that he knew that Jason was back than it had when he was dead. It hurt more knowing how angry and bitter Jason was now compared to the bright-eyed little brother that Dick had known.

Trey nodded, looking out of the car window as they drove over the Robert Kane Memorial Bridge. The dark, dense bulk of Gotham was falling away behind them while ahead of them were strewn the larger, more lavish mansions of Gotham's wealthiest. The contrast was stark. Trey fell quiet, watching them drive past larger and larger buildings that grew more and more distant from the road, increasingly hidden behind their own gardens, walls and gates. Wayne Manor itself was entirely invisible from outside of the grounds, the entrance gates half-hidden among the forest that was carefully tended around the estate's edges.

Dick was relieved to note that the paparazzi vultures who'd been hovering around the gates of Wayne Manor trying to get an exclusive picture of the new Wayne Heiress seemed to have drifted off after her first public appearance last month. They'd practically camped there for Dick's first month at the Manor-Jason's, too. _Wonder how long they'll hang around when word of Trey gets out_? he wondered, glancing at Trey out of the corner of his eye. Trey was staring at the gates of the Manor with a faintly sad look on his face, rubbing his shoulder injury. It would only take one hack with a camera to notice a resemblance...

But today, there was nobody but Alfred's voice on the intercom. " _May I help you?_ "

"Hey, Alfie, it's me," Dick said.

" _Ah, Master Dick. Bringing Master Trey, I presume_?"

"Sure am," Dick said, leaning back into his car as the gates swung open.

Ace sat upright, wagging his tail and barking happily as they drove through the gates and into the trees. Trey leaned back to scratch the dog's ears. "Almost there, boy," he murmured, glancing at Dick. " _Master_ Trey?" he asked.

"Suck it up, he absolutely will not stop doing it," Dick advised wryly. "Took me _days_ just to bargain him down from 'Master Richard' and I've never gotten him to shift since."

Trey opened his mouth, but didn't say anything, his gaze distracted by the sight of Wayne Manor appearing through the trees.

Dick wondered what Trey was thinking. Was he excited by the sight of the tremendous residence? Amazed? Intimidated? _I was a bit of all three,_ Dick recalled. His first glimpse of the Manor had been characterized by awe-it was so big and old that he'd thought it was a castle from a fairytale, the amazement pushing everything out of his head for a few magical seconds, but the closer he'd gotten, the more frightened he'd been by the concept of _living_ there. Aside from some confused notions about castles being full of frightening things like ghosts and dungeons (both of which Wayne Manor _did_ have, in its own fashion), the house was just _too big._ He'd lived most of his life sleeping in a trailer or train compartment with his parents, surrounded at all times by dozens of people and animals. Living in such a huge house with only two other people around (two very quiet, non-tactile people at that) had been almost painful at first.

When he looked back at Trey, though, the guy didn't look excited or scared, just… kind of sad.

Dick pulled the car around the side of the building and into the garage where the most-used cars were kept. Trey's gaze turned a little covetous as he looked over the Mercedes, the Lamborghini, and the Bentley.

"You like cars, Trey?" Dick asked in amusement as he turned the car off and unbuckled his seatbelt.

"Apparently," Trey said with a smirk. The smirk vanished and he went stiff as a board when the door to the house opened and Bruce stepped into the garage. "Is… that him?" Trey asked quietly.

"Yep," Dick said, patting Trey's shoulder. "Just remember, he's more afraid of you than you are of him. C'mon."

Dick unlocked the doors and stepped out of the car. "Morning, Bruce," he said, walking around the front of the car. "I don't think I've ever seen you awake this early in my _life_!" _More like he never went to bed,_ he admitted to himself. _I could sure do with some sleep soon myself..._

"Good morning, Dick," Bruce said, looking from Dick to Trey. "Thanks for doing this. And you must be Trey," he added as the young man in question stepped out of the car.

"Um, yeah," Trey said, closing his door and reaching for the back door. "And this is-WHOA!" As soon as he opened the back door of the car, Ace burst out, barrelling towards Bruce. Dick saw his mentor brace for impact, but Ace didn't knock him down. The huge Great Dane just bounced in a circle around Bruce, barking happily, before squeezing against Bruce's side and nuzzling against his hand, tail wagging fit to bust.

"...Hello there?" Bruce said, gingerly patting the dog, which caused another booming, joyful bark.

"I'm just spitballing here," Trey said, giving a weak laugh, "but I think Ace likes you."

"Didn't know you were so beloved by animals," Dick snickered, leaning back against the hood of his car with a grin.

Bruce just scratched the dog's ears with a bemused expression as he looked up at Trey. "It's good to finally meet you, Trey," he said seriously. "I'm sorry that it's taken so long." He held out his hand to Trey.

"Nice to meet you too," Trey said awkwardly, shaking the proffered hand. "I mean, it's not your fault if you just… didn't know I existed. I wonder why mom never said anything…" He looked down, folding his arms as his expression went sad again. "I wish I could remember her," he said quietly.

"We'll do everything we can to help you get your memory back," Bruce assured him. "I know a doctor you can talk to-she's very good and very discreet. She won't tip off the press about you. They were a nightmare when I adopted Dick and Jason, and they've been hounding poor Cassandra… they'll be twice as bad when they get wind of you. I don't want you to have to deal with them until you're ready."

"I dunno, maybe we should let 'em loose and see what they find," Trey said with a smirk.

Dick laughed. "You'd need Bruce's yacht to get through all the bullshit and speculation before they found anything useful," he chuckled.

"You _seriously_ have a yacht?" Trey asked, gaping.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Bruce said with a little smile. "How about a tour of the house first?" He headed back towards the door into the house. Ace followed as if glued to Bruce's side.

"Man, that dog _loves_ Bruce," Dick marvelled. "Maybe he smells good or something?" He caught himself before he made a comment on the dog's snap judgements of people-the only other person that Ace had really reacted strongly to was Robin, and Officer Grayson probably shouldn't know anything about that.

"Even my dog has abandoned me," Trey sighed dramatically as they followed Bruce and Ace into the house.

Alfred was waiting for them just inside. "Welcome home, Master Dick," he said warmly, "and welcome to Wayne Manor, Master Trey. I am the butler, Alfred Pennyworth."

"Nice to meet you, Mr Pennyworth," Trey said, looking Alfred up and down with the slightly amazed expression of someone who didn't know that butlers were still an actual thing in this day and age.

"Just Alfred, please," Alfred insisted.

"Don't suppose I can ask you to just call me Trey?" Trey asked, glancing at Dick, who grinned and shook his head.

"Under no circumstances," Alfred said flatly. "Have you gentlemen had breakfast yet?"

"Uh… I actually can't remember the last time I ate," Trey admitted, rubbing his stomach. "Literally."

"Oh, damn… I'm sorry, Trey, you should've said something, we could've swung by a cafe to get coffee and food on the way here," Dick said guiltily. _Or maybe I should've noticed that the Team didn't go to get food after picking Trey up last night and nobody'd found my stash in the bunker… some detective_ I _am._

"I actually didn't realize until right this minute that I was hungry," Trey said wryly. "Can the house tour start with the kitchen?"

"An excellent idea, Master Trey," Alfred said. "This way, if you please…"

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 _Happy New Year, folks! I had a good time having my parents over to visit-I hope you all had a good new year too and that 2018's being good to you so far. Have Ace being a good, good dog and Dick being a good, good big brother._


End file.
